War of the Worlds set to re-take the airwaves starting Thursday
It was about combining real time and fake news.
The War of the Worlds, written by H.G. Wells, may have been a classic work of science fiction but, for writer Howard Koch, it was dull, dusty and in need of something completely different.
Under the guidance of pre-Citizen Kane wunderkind Orson Welles, they would find something quite different: the Martians would invade New Jersey, and the invasion would happen in real time amid unrelated weather reports and news updates.
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It was an idea so original, inventive and potentially illegal, that it proved irresistible.
A “newscaster” told the audience about explosions of incandescent gas on the Planet Mars, something moving toward Earth with tremendous velocity . . . and then:
“Now a tune that never loses favor, the ever-popular “Star Dust,” the announcer would intone.
One actor did his best to re-create the reaction to the Hindenburg disaster. The Martian war machines took shape thanks to some brilliant sound effects work.
To accommodate changes made to the structure of the radio play, the usual station break was delayed, meaning that listeners who tuned in late “would have to wait almost 40 minutes for a disclaimer explaining that the show was fiction,” noted an overview by Smithsonian Magazine.
For some listeners, the story was persuasive.
There were anecdotal reports of folks packing up their cars to either flee or get a glimpse of the invading horde.
William Dock, according to one local legend, is said to have dragged out a firearm and fired a shot at a water tower, believing it to be a Martian spaceship.
Discussing the aftermath, Orson Welles would quip: “I didn’t go to jail. I went to Hollywood.”
Ioco Players are set to present War Of the Worlds: The Panic Broadcast, in four performances at Inlet United Church starting Thursday and wrapping up Saturday.
The play is meant to be: “a thrilling homage to the form’s golden age and a timely reminder of what fear can do to a society.”
The production is for mature audiences. Tickets $30.
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